This invention relates generally searching for a location, and particularly to using category indices to improve search results.
Location searching is an important part of mapping and navigation applications and services. Location searching is used to identify a specific location, such as a latitude and longitude, on a map that is associated with the user's search request. Users also typically desire to enter a single string to search for a location, rather than to enter additional information, such as a city, state, type of location, etc. Thus, users enter a single string, such as “empire state” or “castro atm” or “salon near 35 main st” or “main & park.” Resolving these search queries into a set of search results for the user is a difficult challenge that frequently creates poor results. In part, this is due to incomplete information provided by the user that often creates ambiguity. For instance, a search for “empire state” in New York partially matches the Empire State Building, organizations named “empire state,” and streets that use “empire” in the street name. Accurately selecting from among these ambiguous results to determine a desired result (or a ranking of results) is a difficult problem in location-based searching.